[lbo-talk] _cool it_, bjorn lomborg

[Gar Lipow]

On 9/28/07, martin <mschiller at pobox.com> wrote:
> I was surprised the other nite when jon stewart came across as rather
> dismissive of this guy, and his book. His arguments and resume seemed
> reasonable, and appear well documented as I look through the book.
>
> If I'm mistaken in my reading of jon stewart I'll feel better.
>

His resume certainly is not reasonable. He wrote an awful book called
"The Skeptical Environmentalist" in which he was caught using cherry
picking and other faulty statistical techniques to make the case that
world environmental problems were exaggerated. The Danish Committee on
Scientific Dishonesty investigated charges againstt, and decided the
book itself was scientifically dishonest, but acquitted Lomborg of
deliberate dishonesty on grounds that the lacked scientific training,
and therefore his he may have made honest errors rather that being
deliberately dishonest .

The things the society found wrong with his book included:

   1. Fabrication of data;

   2. Selective discarding of unwanted results (selective citation);

   3. Deliberately misleading use of statistical methods;

   4. Distorted interpretation of conclusions;

   5. Plagiarism;

   6. Deliberate misinterpretation of others' results.

Haven't read the new book, but Joe Romm (who I respect on scientific
and technical issues even though we have some strong disagreements on
political economy)  does not think highly of it:

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/13/105130/672

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/14/142514/357

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/17/151133/245